The mother of a teenager badly beaten after an attack after a Belfast concert has urged witnesses to come forward.

16-year-old Jason Tuite has been left with metal plates in his face and could lose sight in an eye after an altercation with a group of males after the Tiesto concert in Belfast at the end of August.

Mum Kay told Belfast Live: “What can you say to people who did something like that? How can you do that to a young fella?

“He’s only a wee small fella. He’s not well-built, he’s not tall. He’s only a kid really. What were they thinking?”

Jason, from Dundalk, had been attending the Tiesto concert at the Boucher Road playing fields on August 26.

After losing his friends on the way back to the bus after the concert with his girlfriend, Jason was set upon by a male before a gang of others joined in, leaving him with serious facial injuries.

His mum explained: “He said that his girlfriend and himself got lost from the people that they were with and they were walking looking for their bus.

“As they were passing another bus there was a fella in jean shorts and no top standing on the steps of the bus.

“He was shouting abuse to Jason’s girlfriend. And Jason said to him: “Have you a problem?”

“And he said to him: “I’ll take the face of you”.

“Jason said “Go for it” - and with that he kicked Jason in the head.

“The two of them went at it and then about four or five of them got off the bus and they all got stuck in on him.”

A friend of Jason’s arrived on the scene and was able to stop the incident.

Kay said that her son suffered a range of injuries.

She said: “He had surgery on the Sunday night; he had a testicle removed.

“On Tuesday past he had surgery on his face. He had a broken nose, bones shattered on his cheek and damage to his eye socket.

“He has plates now under his eye and to the side of it and those are permanent.

“There’s a possibility of losing his sight in his eye. He has an appointment in October to assess that but he has blurred vision at the moment.

“He’s fed up with it all. He thinks he’ll never get better. He’s annoyed with losing the testicle.”

Kay admits that she never foresaw what would happen to her son, and appealed for any witnesses to come forward.

She said: “His bus went from literally the club around the corner, and it was to leave him back there. I said ‘It’ll be fine, nothing will happen’.

“I didn’t know how bad it was. I was talking to the police last night and he said that there isn’t any progress yet.

“I can’t understand why the bus driver is not coming forward. The bus driver saw it all apparently. He’s a grown man, even though he didn’t stop it - he probably didn’t want to get involved - he could still let someone know what happened.”